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Definition

The Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine is a systematic, computer-processable collection of medical terms, in human and veterinary medicine, to provide codes, terms, synonyms and definitions which cover anatomy, diseases, findings, procedures, microorganisms, substances, etc. It allows a consistent way to index, store, retrieve, and aggregate medical data across specialties and sites of care. Although now international, SNOMED was started in the U.S. by the College of American Pathologists in 1973 and revised into the 1990s, then in 2002, SNOMED was merged and expanded with the UK National Health Service.
Versions of SNOMED released prior to 2001 were based on a multiaxial, hierarchical classification system. As in any such system, a disease may be located in a body organ, which results in a code in a topography axis and may lead to morphological alterations represented by a morphology code.
In 2002 the first release of SNOMED CT adopted a completely different structure. A sub-type hierarchy, supported by defining relationships based on description logic, replaced the axes described in this article. Versions of SNOMED prior to SNOMED CT are planned to be formally deprecated from 2017. Therefore readers interested in current information about SNOMED are directed to the article on SNOMED CT.